Notes

Track Listing:

1. Transcontinental (12:51)
   
   first telepathic duet, 16 August 1999


2. Time, place and condition (4:42)
   
   multi-tracked trio with two tenor recorder parts added to the shakuhachi part; recorded 16 August and 9 October 1999


3. Surface will (10:11)
   
   second telepathic duet, 27 August 1999


4. Iron & steel (2:04)
   
   tenor recorder barrel, played as a brass instrument, recorded 9 October 1999, added to a shakuhachi improvisation from 27 September 1999


5. Punctuated equilibrium (5:06)
   
   third telepathic duet, 27 September 1999


6. Rose Mountain (14:20)
   
   first duo improvisation, recorded 29 July, 1999 at the Advanced Deep Listening Retreat, led by Pauline Oliveros, at Rose Mountain, NM


7. An haiku may be edited without his author may know it (7:56)
   
   first performance before a live general audience, at Plan B in Santa Fe, NM on 31 July 1999 as part of the concert Listen Deeply, Beauty Surrounds You

Gusty Winds May Exist is a duo that began with a free improvisation on a mountain in New Mexico, at the Advanced Deep Listening Retreat led by composer Pauline Oliveros. Nancy Beckman brings experience in the meditative solo tradition of shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) as well as more extroverted techniques of intuitive improvisation. Recorder player Tom Bickley brings experience performing early European music and new music using extended techniques. The music created by Gusty Winds May Exist places these traditions in the same time and space and explores the sonic world that results.

Based in San Francisco, California and Washington, DC, Beckman and Bickley continue their collaborative music making through transcontinental telepathic duets. At an agreed-upon time they sit in meditation for a few minutes, then each records a live improvisation in their respective studios, and later combine the two recordings into one piece. Tracks 1, 3 and 5 are examples of this practice.

Tom Bickley uses recorders, other early European wind instruments, voice, electronics, and found sounds as a composer/performer. He studied recorder with Scott Reiss, and holds degrees in music theory and musicology. As a recorder player he explores extended techniques such as the production of chords and simultaneous singing and playing. In early music he works primarily with medieval European repertory and its rich tradition of improvised ornamentation. In Washington, DC, he teaches at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, assists with the multicultural liturgical music at St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church, and performs with the new music trio Comma. He is certified by Pauline Oliveros to teach the meditative improvisation practices of Deep Listening^TM.

Nancy Beckman began studying the shakuhachi at the Zen Buddhist temple Meianji in Kyoto, Japan from 1972-1976, where she learned the traditional solo meditational pieces. Returning to the United States, she studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, and went on to develop site-specific performance art pieces using Japanese language and shakuhachi. Based in San Francisco, she plays shakuhachi and lyre for hospice, improvises with the Sisters of the Sound Continuum, and teaches the traditional solo shakuhachi repertoire.

Instruments:

• baroque alto recorder in maple by H. Takeyama, 1997, a=415
  
• renaissance tenor recorder in maple by P. Kobliczek, 1982, a=440
  
• Myoan style 21 1/2" shakuhachi, minimal lacquer, ca.1965
  
• Kinko style 21 1/4" shakuhachi, by maker of Miura Kindo lineage
  
• Myoan style nishaku (24" shakuhachi), minimal lacquer, by Myochin, ca. 1970
  

For information about new releases, performances, etc.:
http://www.metatronpress.com/artists/gwme


Special gratitude to Matthew Ross Davis, Lisa Mages, Pauline Oliveros, Jim Stavoy, Freddy Reynolds, Joseph Zitt, Elizabeth Beckman, Frances Bickley, and the participants in the 1999 Advanced Deep Listening Retreat.

Recording and notes by Gusty Winds May Exist

Design and layout by Joseph Zitt. (The PDF file included on this page contains the innovative 11"x17" cover sheet for this CD.)

We offer these sounds for your mindful listening; use as background music at your own risk.